Note 35 — SERMON XXXIV. The Atonement of Christ. Rom. iii. 25.—Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation——

I grant, 1. That their continual persistence and obstinacy in sinful practices, may naturally render them continually miserable; and 2. This continued obstinacy may also, in a legal sense, merit continual new punishment. And perhaps, on these two reasons, the actual eternity of hell may be justly supported. But unless we suppose every wilful rebellion against the infinite Majesty of God, to have also a sort of infinite evil in it, I do not see that everlasting chains, and eternal fire, are a proper deserved punishment, legally due to their first rebellion, that is, to one act of sin.